Recruiting and Interviewing Strategies for Growing Cannabis Companies

For rapidly growing cannabis companies, HR and Hiring Managers should develop a strategy and implement a plan to target and attract talented professionals. An excellent approach to widen your ‘recruiting net’ is to recruit prospective candidates from other industries. If candidates have transferable skills and the right attitude, and they are a good match for your company, you can use this tactic to grow your workforce successfully. To follow are tips and strategies to set your cannabis company up for recruiting and interviewing success.

Although prospective candidates from other industries may not have cannabis experience, you might want to take another look before passing on their resumes. If a candidate has an established personal brand that aligns with the values of your company, they can be a stronger hire than a candidate who has cannabis experience but lacks a unique ‘personal brand.’ During the recruiting process, HR and Hiring Managers should seek to identify candidates who have an established personal brand and who differentiate themselves from others during the interview process. Cannabis companies should look for candidates who understand the importance of your company’s specific goals and demands. Savvy candidates know how to align their personal brand characteristics to those that are desirable to the cannabis company during the recruiting process. Training and developing and implementing robust onboarding materials and plans can mitigate the lack of industry-specific knowledge.

Personal branding is marketing, selling, and promoting your skills to a prospective employer and communicating what makes you the perfect fit for the company and a better choice than other candidates. When personal branding is used correctly in interviewing with cannabis companies, it is a powerful tool. It establishes a positive impression in an interviewer's mind about the personality traits and characteristics that the candidate possesses and will benefit the company. HR and Hiring Managers should target candidates who align their unique brand characteristics to the success factors that your cannabis company seeks in new employees, such as:

• Positive attitude, enthusiasm for a career in the cannabis industry, a desire to work for the prospective employer, and self-confidence in the workplace.
• Industry knowledge and the willingness and desire to learn more about the industry and the company's products. Self-starters, especially in start-ups, will be ideal candidates.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and exceptional customer service and 'people skills,' especially for budtenders and customer-facing employees.
• Self-reliance and technical proficiency with the ability to make sound decisions of increasing complexity as a person's career progresses.
• Depending on the role, managerial or supervisory skills or potential with the ability to organize and delegate work effectively.
• Being a team player. Employees need to be able to work effectively in a team environment and possess the ability to merge their ambitions with the goals of the team and the company.
• Robust work ethic and attention to detail. Cannabis companies seek employees who are not opposed to long hours and understand the importance of meeting company goals and demands in all aspects of the business and throughout the year.

Once candidates understand successful cannabis professionals' characteristics, the next step is to build your distinctive brand around these characteristics. A personal brand can help leverage your strengths, define your future contributions to the company, and communicate your value to the interviewer. Throughout the interview process, candidates need to convey their unique qualities and 'who they are' to the prospective cannabis employer. Candidates should cite specific examples from their work and academic experiences to substantiate their brand characteristics. Entry-level candidates should not be concerned if they do not have cannabis industry experience if they can provide examples to demonstrate that they possess the qualities that the cannabis company seeks.

For growing cannabis companies, identifying and targeting candidates with and without cannabis industry experience can lead to recruiting success. Seek candidates who have developed and communicated their personal brand. This approach can broaden your ‘recruiting net,’ differentiate your cannabis company, and provide the 'edge' you need to stand out from other potential employers. Competition is tight for desirable cannabis industry positions. Targeting candidates who have aligned their personal brand characteristics to your cannabis company can be your key to successfully expanding your workforce in this rapidly growing industry.

Wurk helps operators make effective recruiting decisions, protects cannabis businesses from bad hires, and minimizes HR professionals’ time on administrative details. Wurk’s Applicant Tracking System allows operators to seamlessly recruit, hire, and onboard new employees all in one platform. Wurk’s hiring solutions reduce costly administrative work with a centralized workflow that automates:

• Managing job postings
• Collecting applications and responses
• Filing resumes
• Performing background screening
• Communicating with applicants
• Creating comprehensive audit trails

HR and Hiring Managers can easily share interview notes, match applicants to key job criteria, and fine-tune hiring profiles to the qualities and skills of your most valuable employees.

Recruit, onboard, and manage top talent using simple and intuitive software and one platform, Wurk’s all-in-one solution for Human Capital Management. Contact Wurk to schedule a demo and get started today!